As I set off across the Heath at 8.30 yesterday morning it was cold, seriously cold. The sun was cheeringly bright but the air was icy. And so was the mud. But because the mud is so deep and so wet, tiny ice images had formed in every footprint left by Saturday’s visitors. Here is …
Hampstead Heath
Remains of the snow
Although there are threats of more to come, the only snow that was left on the heath yesterday afternoon were a few muddy lumps of what once were snowmen. So lest we have have no more this year, I thought it would be nice to remember how pretty it looked. This is what I saw …
Snow!
Coming down hard enough to show off those tractor treads on my new Grubs boots. And it kept on coming as I walked down the road to my path onto the heath. I’ll take you down. Once on the heath I was positively mobbed by snowmen. I have never seen so many of them. What …
Early morning sun
I am not good at catching the early morning sun. It is not that I get up late – I am an early riser. But long habit draws me first to my desk and then, before I know it, it is 2pm and I am catching the late afternoon instead of the early morning sun. …
Early Spring
Up around the back of the Kenwood Dairies there is a small temperate zone where spring arrives a good deal earlier than on the rest of the estate. The ones out ahead of the pack are usually the camellias. In fact a lot of them were already in full flower down by the house before …
Swans in flight
Walking round the bottom of the men’s swimming pond two days ago I saw the pair of swans who are normally to be found on the boating pond setting out purposefully from the bank. But only seconds later they changed their minds and headed equally purposefully back towards me. They were obviously ambivalent about where …






